Sacred Journey to a Nation: The Construction of a Shrine in Postwar Kosovo

Abstract

The site of an infamous Serb massacre of a militant Albanian extended family in March 1998 has become the most prominent sacred shrine in postwar Kosovo attracting thousands of Albanian visitors. Inspired by Smith's (2003) 'territorialization of memory' as a sacred source of national identity and MacCannell's (1999 [1976]) five-stage model of 'sight sacralization', this article traces the site's sacred memorial topography, its construction process, its social and material reproductions, and adds a sixth stage to the interpretation-the 'political reproduction'. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the commemorative literature emanating from this shrine and on numerous interviews with core protagonists (including former guerrilla) and visitors, the article explores the ways in which the religious themes of martyrdom and sacrifice, as well as traditionalist ideals of solidarity and militancy, are embodied at the site and give sense to a nationwide celebration of ethno-national resistance, solidarity and independence. O verlooking the hamlet of Prekaz, in the central valley of Drenica where the Kosovo war was fought most intensely, the burned ruins of the Jashari family's compound stands as a reminder of a tragic event, rich JOURNEYS, VOL. 7 ISSUE 1 a1 J7.1 INSIDE-SB1 11/5/06 8:42 am Page a1 with symbolic significance. On March 1998, twenty members of this extended Albanian family were killed by Serb troops during a siege that lasted three days and resulted in many more casualties in the surrounding area. The Jasharis were among the founders of the clandestine Albanian guerrilla forces, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). 1 Since these events the Jashari family, labelled 'terrorist' in all official Serb proclamations (Tanjug 1998), have been celebrated by the Albanians as 'glorious martyrs' and their deaths as 'sublime sacrifice' to their nation. Indeed, the Jasharis' death forfeits ready-made categories of 'victims' versus 'perpetrators'. According to the commemorative literature, all members of the family freely chose to stay in their 'wounded tower-house' (Halimi and Shala 2000: 24) and they fought back defying fear of death. Today, the ruins of the family compound have been opened to visitors, a formerly private space turned public by the events and now serving as a sacred shrine to the Albanian nation. The family deaths and their selfdetermination embodied at this site promise the Albanian visitors that it is possible to become master of their own, national destiny. From 2000 to 2005 each of us often visited Prekaz. At the site, we observed and interviewed various Albanian individuals, families and participants on organized tour groups from across Kosovo, the region and the Diaspora. We also interviewed numerous visitors to the shrine off site, in neighbouring Albania, Pristina, the US and the UK. Our interlocutors on site, visitors and officials alike, never expressed discontent but rather only compliance with the site's ideology. In contrast to the diversity of experience and attitude described for other shrines in ...

Joining the Kosovo Liberation Army: A continuist, process-based analysis

“…The violent clashes with the Jashari family, which had lasted several days, gave the representation of an armed resistance organization a sense of reality, credibility, and substance, among those who had never encountered it or considered it as tangible. The conditions in which Adem Jashari died encouraged the construction of a myth of resistance situated in a national heroic genealogy going back to Skanderbeg, the ex-Janissary who opposed the Ottoman conquest in the Middle Ages: Jashari had died in battle, supposedly sacrificing himself and his family for the nation (Di Lellio and Schwandner-Sievers, 2006: 45).…”

Dynamics of the particular and the common: Monuments and patriotic tourism in socialist Yugoslavia – a case study of Kosovo

“…This global phenomenon is also the case of monuments in Yugoslavia (Mitrovica, Landovica, etc.) and the post-Yugoslav monuments in Kosovo that memorialize the war of 1999 (Adem Jashari Memorial Complex in Prekaz, Kosovo) (Di Lellio & Schwandner-Sievers, 2006).…”

“…This can be signified not only by expressing responses to the commemorated event and interacting with others, but also in more formalized rituals such as official ceremonies. In studies of contemporary memorials, a number of ways of expression (responses) have been recognized as performative acts of com-memoration (Di Lellio & Schwandner-Sievers, 2006;Logan, 2009;Santino, 2006;Schellenberg, 2016;Young, 2000Young, , 2003.…”

Contested war remembrance and ethnopolitical identities in Kosovo

“…The graves of more than 50 of Jashari's relatives have been turned into a popular memorial complex and a powerful symbol of war remembrance (Di Lellio and Schwandner-Sievers 2006a). Jashari's iconic figure as a founding myth in a "liberation war" embodied a national master narrative and memorialization of sacrifices and endless national struggle against enemies, or as the guestbook in the Jashari memorial complex stated in 2002, "The blood of this family and our Legendary Commander Adem Jashari was the foundation stone of the freedom that we enjoy today and will be enjoyed by generations to follow" (Di Lellio and Schwandner-Sievers 2006b).…”